


Return to the Cold Embrace of Your Lover

by katika



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, CapHill is my crack/ship move over and make room, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-12
Updated: 2016-06-12
Packaged: 2018-07-14 13:43:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7174130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katika/pseuds/katika
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>HYDRA wanted to SuperNova the Avengers – use the unstable virus to turn the Hulk into an exploding green rage monster, turn Captain America into a helpless suicide bomber, and even use Hawkeye as a HYDRA grenade.<br/>But the human and non-powered Maria Hill?  Who the hell would care if she blew up, unless it were to take out Fury?  Maria Hill wasn’t the intended target, but she sure as hell intended to take the virus out of play, and was willing to pay the cost.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Return to the Cold Embrace of Your Lover

**Author's Note:**

> I also posted on Tumblr (coffeepaperscissors)  
> SOOO….. I’ve been an avid CapHill fanfic reader for a while now (big thanks to tielan and kavific for getting me hooked originally - oh, how much more productive I could have been if I’d never stumbled across your stories), and I have hesitated to post because it’s not as good as what I’ve been reading. But I’m realizing that my writing never will be as good until I try, and even then it will take time and effort.  
> So here I go! Please be kind….

Blinking slowly, Maria forces her eyes to focus. Steve’s bright blue eyes, flooded with concern, fill her vision. She hears only the insistent drumming of blood rushing in her ears, can feel the pounding echoing through her veins, and pain flaring bright while her body seems frozen. A warm hand brushes across her forehead. Is he holding her head up? Get UP, goddammit, soldier!

“Dammit, Hill, lie still,” she finally hears Steve say. As if she could get up but rather chose to lay on the floor of the Quinjet. His Captain America tone pushes at her with its mix of reassurance and command. She’s dimly aware of four other figures laying prone around her in the cargo bay, studded with arrows, and a few others unmoving but without a mark. Damn Frisbee.

“The team is fine. Stark’s on his way, and we’re safely over the ocean. Don’t worry.” Barton’s tone is clipped and his brief update reassures her while his final words don’t. 

The corner of Maria’s lips quirk upwards. “If I wasn’t before, I am now,” she manages. 

Banner hovers over Steve’s shoulder. “We have at approximately 47 minutes left before Hill’s SuperNova virus levels reach critical,” he warns softly. 

Not enough time. 

Even foggy, Maria knows that Iron Man’s top speed of Mach 2 still requires over two hours for the transatlantic flight. Steve’s mouth flattens into a grim line. 

SuperNova was a twisted variant of the Extremis virus, worse since HYDRA scientists had embraced its instability. Damn HYDRA wanted to SuperNova the Avengers – use the unstable virus to turn the Hulk into an exploding green rage monster, Captain America into a helpless suicide bomber, and even Hawkeye as a detonated tool of HYDRA. Several charred areas in SHIELD’s MedBay testify to the destructive power of the first unsuspecting SuperNova-injected suicide bombers. Maria’s hip throbs at the intercepted injection point. 

There’s not enough time for Stark to reach them with his antidote prototype, dubbed Project P:SHES or Precious (Protostar: SuperNova Hydrostatic Equilibrium Serum.) Remembering Tony drumming his fingers together in mock mad scientist glee, whispering, “My precious!” is enough to double the galloping across Maria’s skull.

There’s no FitzSimmons on board, no cryogenic equipment to slow down the virus’ invasion through her body. 

“Overboard,“ she whispers urgently. “Ocean. Not enough time.”

“No!” She knows Steve understands immediately, the painful contraction of his features as he recalls his own time in stasis. In the frozen embrace of the ocean. 

“We’ll find another way, Maria.” 

 

 


End file.
